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Indie developer 24 Carat Games has officially unveiled its side-scrolling shooter with a twist as a downloadable PlayStation 3 title called Retro/Grade. The twist is that it isn’t actually a side-scrolling shooter.

An early screenshot, shown above, definitely looks the part of a new-retro arcade shooter, but in fact the game progresses backwards through time. As a result, the spaceship pilot known as Rick Rocket must navigate to “catch” his own shots, effectively making it a rhythm game. Powerups include one that reverses time, sending it back forward. It effectively works like the “rewind” bonus in DJ Hero, letting players re-play a small segment of a level. Cementing its characterization as a rhythm game, it even supports guitar controllers, turning Guitar Heroes into Interstellar Heroes.

Providing the tunes is electronic artist Nautilus, whose work resulted in a nomination for the audio category at this year’s Independent Games Festival. The not-quite-a-shooter was also nominated for the prestigious Excellence in Game Design gong, signaling that we’ll be hearing lots more about this one.

According to 24 Caret co-founder Matt Gilgenbach, Retro/Grade will hit the PlayStation Store sometime in 2010.